BUREAU OF
CANNABIS CONTROL
In 1996, California made history as the first state to legalize medicinal cannabis use; today, a majority of states have some form of legalized cannabis, with 11 fully legalized (adult recreational and medicinal). Unlike many states, California has more than a decade of experience regulating the industry. However, the legal cannabis market in California faces many of the challenges that come with moving an industry from quasi-legal to legal, particularly given the massive size of California. These challenges include continuing production of cannabis by black market growers and manufacturers, out-of-compliance businesses operating in plain sight, confusion among consumers in identifying which businesses are legal, lower price points for illegal cannabis products, and dangers associated with using illicit cannabis products. In an effort to encourage cannabis companies to enter the legal market and raise consumer awareness to the dangers of untested, illicit cannabis products, the Bureau contracted with KP Public Affairs to lead an education and awareness campaign.
In less than six months, the campaign achieved widespread awareness and recognition including more than 30,000 clicks on the campaign website seeing educational information, more than 235,000 in a pixel audience, 671 news articles that mentioned Get #weedwise, 38 original stories describing Get #weedwise and CApotcheck.com (including major outlets like CNBC, SF Chronicle, LA Times, and Rolling Stone), television and radio news coverage in San Francisco, Sacramento, Long Beach, and Los Angeles, a Univision story (Spanish television), and more than 750 million news media impressions.
